The present invention generally relates to lighting systems that use planar light sources such as Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs), and more particularly relates to a means for operatively attaching planar light sources to such lighting systems.
OLED lighting systems exist that are comprised of a number of, and often a large number of, OLED panels. Individual OLED panels within the lighting system can be provided with their own microprocessor control unit, sometimes referred to as a “driver,” which allows an OLED panel to be addressed by a system control unit for monitoring and controlling the panel. Heretofore, the approach to providing local panel drivers for the OLED panels of an OLED lighting system has been to bond the drivers directly to the back of the OLED panels. The difficulty with this approach is that the panel drivers produce heat, which detrimentally affects the operation of the OLEDs.
More generally, employing OLED's as the light source of choice presents challenges for lighting designers. Unlike conventional light sources, such as incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes that can easily be plugged into compatible lamp sockets mounted in a luminaire, flat panel light sources are relatively difficult to integrate into the structural environment of a luminaire or lighting system, and are relatively difficult to remove and replace. The cassette structure disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,062,836 was devised to provide and means of attaching an OLED panel to a base structure of an OLED luminaire. However, while facilitating the attachment of OLED panels, the disclosed cassette structure does not contemplate the use of, or provide for accommodating a local driver for the OLED panel held in the cassette, much less addressing the problem of heat transfer between the OLED panel and a panel driver used with an OLED panel.